Telefonica’s acquisition of E-Plus, if approved, will turn Germany into a fiercely competitive market.

The European Commission’s analysis of the Austrian merger case was inadequate and key arguments that led to the approval of the merger were flawed. Telefonica’s acquisition of E-Plus in Germany could only be approved if a fourth national mobile network operator entered the market. In the absence of a new operator entry, Telefonica’s acquisition of E-Plus should not be approved on the sole basis of an Austrian-like toothless MVNO wholesale access remedy but rather on the condition that Telefonica must become post-merger a truly competitive mobile-only operator force by divesting all its fixed-line assets and by maximising the utilisation of its spectrum holdings.

In June 2018 Elisa became the first operator in the world to launch commercial service over its 5G (3.5 GHz) network in Tampere Finland and Tallinn Estonia. Elisa invited Rewheel to try its 5G network.